Timing

 There are certain things you just don’t do at certain times that are wholly acceptable as a general rule. My little brother found that out the hard way when he traveled to Kenya during election season. Usually, the worst you could expect from a trip to Kenya is cramps from accidentally ingesting the tap water, but come election season, it’s best to stay home and try and grow cucumbers. It’s much safer too.

I found out the hard way when I went to Turkey during Ramadan because the vacation packages were so cheap; it was almost like they were paying me to go. Once I got there, I understood why it was so inexpensive. Let’s just say hungry people aren’t generally happy people. Imagine an entire nation of hangry folk just waiting on sunset to eat something while yours truly is walking around with a kebab in hand, trying to decide whether I’d have the regular baklava or the pistachio for dessert. I went with the pistachio. No regrets.

We’ve all heard the adage that timing is everything, and it’s truer than some might believe. That’s why I have a healthy respect for anyone with comedic timing. It takes skill to be able to deliver a line, replete with a pregnant pause, and have it land perfectly. Some of the more popular televangelists are good at timing and delivery. They elicit emotional responses based on cadence, tonality, linguistic flourish, and timing. I’m sure you’ve seen it a time or two, the waving of the handkerchief, the looking up to heaven, baiting the hook, and reeling you in.

Yes, I do want my net worth to grow like the jalapeno. You’re right, sweaty preacher man; I owe it to myself to make my finances multiply. I receive it! You are absolutely correct. If you don’t plant a seed, you can’t expect anything to grow. How did I not see that before? May I ask where you’re planting your seed? No? That’s none of my business, and you rebuke me for doubting the man of God? Got it. Not a fan of jalapenos but thanks anyway.

My eldest daughter has this odd way of throwing out an I love you, daddy right before I either find out she did something she wasn’t supposed to or she feels guilty about doing something she wasn’t supposed to. No sooner is the I love you, daddy out of her mouth than I hear her sister yelling bloody murder from the basement because Victoria took her stuffy and hid it somewhere. It’s not that I don’t believe my daughter loves me, but it sure would be nice if she said it more often when she wasn’t in trouble or when she wanted something from me.

It’s the same four words, spoken in the same tenor and with the same passion, but the timing of when they are spoken is important in regards to how it is received.

Zechariah 7:11-13, “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts. Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts.”

You don’t have to look far to find an apropos example of what Zechariah is referring to. This isn’t something that just happened way back when, before people had Strong’s exhaustive concordances on their phones, but something that happens to this day in various places on earth.

God speaks, the people refuse to heed, they go out of their way to pretend as though God has not spoken, and when the wrath of the Lord descends, they cry out to Him. Did you think God was kidding? Did you think He’d forget? Did you think He’d give the nation a mulligan just because?

Don’t wait for the wrath of God to commence before you realize He’s a serious God. The timing of your crying out matters because God said He would not listen to the cries of those who would not hear Him. You can’t ignore God for years on end as He lovingly calls you to Himself, then suddenly expect Him to be at your beck and call when you’ve made such a mess of your life that you see no light at the end of the tunnel.

Some people take God’s love and grace for granted so much that it’s entered the realm of abuse. God will wait for me. I’m going to sow my oats, live my life, do what I want, and He’ll just be there, waiting in the corner until I’ve burned myself out, and destroyed everything worth having in my life; then, perhaps, I’ll give Him a chance. Sorry, kitty, God is not a modern male who grovels for your attention and has no standards. He is God! He spoke, and you refused to heed. He called, and you refused to listen. He warned, and you refused to hear.

The Book already tells us He is a consuming fire. We should have believed it, and rather than make our hearts like flint, heeded the words He sent by His spirit. The contemporary preacher has convinced the church that even though they do not heed, obey, or submit to the word of God, they should live with the full expectation of God listening to them. Regardless of their rebellion, disobedience, betrayal, and unfaithfulness, because they waved a Bible in church once upon a time, they should expect God to hear and do as they request without delay. Tell me the modern-day church is headed for a rude awakening without telling me it’s headed for a rude awakening.

God hears those who hear Him. That’s something worth remembering the next time we decide there are no consequences to ignoring God.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Fear

 The devil has always been good at narrative shifts. That and pressing his advantage when he has the upper hand. He started out tempting Eve with the notion that if she took a bite, she would be as God. That didn’t work out so well for Eve, but we’ve rewritten history so often that I wouldn’t be surprised if some quack pretending to be a theologian came out and said that she did the right thing. What can be more empowering than being like God? It’s just because God was for the patriarchy that He told Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit.

Scripture twisting doesn’t serve to change the mind of God. The only thing scripture twisting does is serve to deceive the gullible and convince them that an octogenarian who would win a joker look-alike contest for all the nips and tucks and shots of Botox has a better grasp on the message of the cross than Peter, Paul, Luke, John, Matthew or Mark.

The devil’s not about to give you sound advice. It’s like having a mortal enemy, one whose singular desire is to see you perish, and taking what he says to heart as something good for you.

Your enemy isn’t your friend, and scores of believers have forgotten this all-important truth. If you want to know what the enemy fears, see what he’s trying to encourage believers to stop doing. Die to self? Oh, you don’t want to do that, he whispers. Whom will you be if you keep dying?

That’s the trick. He leaves the question open-ended, hoping your flesh pipes up in its defense. If He keeps increasing, and by the immutable law of physics, I keep decreasing, what will become of me?

The devil knows that when there is no more of you, he no longer has a foothold. There no longer remains a chink in the armor that he can exploit, there no longer remains a lust or desire that he can enflame, and he has become powerless, no longer a roaring lion but a toothless one.

He also knows that the closer you get to God, the more He increases in your life, the clearer you will hear His voice, the more intimate your walk, and the more fulfilling your journey. When God says to draw close to Him, it’s not purposeless. There is nothing He does that is purposeless. There is always a reason for the things God asks of us, and the reason is never arbitrary or pointless.

The same can be said for the things He says no to when we ask it of Him. My kids ask for many things on any given day. If it were up to them, they’d have cookies for dinner, cake for dessert, and a vanilla shake to wash it all down with every day. I know that in the moment giving in to their request would make them happy. It would make them smile, laugh, and call me the best dad ever, but then the stomach cramps would ensue, the hyper energy from all the sugar, and the crash as the sugar leeches out of their system.

I love my children too much to let them eat whatever they want, and God loves you too much to give in and give you things that would thoroughly shipwreck your life.

Well, I, for one, don’t receive that, you grumpy man, I’m just going to ask what I desire, and when I get my mansion next to brother Joel, I’m going to take a selfie in front of it and send it to you. That’s as simplistic as asking someone how a jet flies, and they say you just have to press a button. Why is it that people who should be in advanced calculus by now don’t seem to know what two plus two adds up to? 

John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

And here comes the if again, ruining all your plans for manicured lawns and award-winning gardens. There are two preconditions for asking what you desire and having it done for you. First, you must abide in Him; second, His words must abide in you.

Spoiler alert: if you abide in Christ and His words abide in you, you won’t be asking for mansions and Bentleys. You’ll be asking for more of Him! It is the only thing that will satisfy. It is the only thing that will satiate. It is the only thing that will make you whole, and those who are abiding in Him, and have His words abiding in them, can attest to this.

Is the point clear enough? When you are in Him, and He is in you, you will have what you desire, but what you desire will not be baubles or things of this earth. It will not be something worthless or irrelevant; it will be a closer walk with Jesus.

Remember when we sang hymns like a closer walk with thee? How did it go? Just a closer walk with Thee, grant it, Jesus, is my plea, daily walking close to Thee, let it be, dear Lord, let it be? If we were to sing that in the church today, nine out of ten times, we would be singing a lie because we’d be hard-pressed to find a closer walk with Jesus in the top ten of our hierarchy of desire, never mind at number one.

But somehow, it’s still God’s fault. Somehow it’s His fault that He doesn’t hear, or that He doesn’t answer, or that doesn’t fulfill the wishes of spoiled children in adult bodies who think that the comforts of this life are what we should desire above a closer walk with Him. How vapid a thing to believe that the Son of God died on a cross so that you might have material things.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Release

Live long enough, and you’re bound to see some odd things. Especially nowadays, it’s a blessing if, on any given day, you don’t see something that doesn’t shock you, amaze you, or disgusts you, and I’m not even what some might call a social butterfly. Depending on where you live, you can walk out of your front door and see firsthand what sin can do to man, degrading him to the point of being something other than human. You can see in real-time the way it ravages, destroys, and pollutes, leeching humanity itself from those in its grasp, leaving them hollow and empty inside. Depending on your location, you can wade through a sea of human misery every morning or watch a sunrise crest over a snow-peaked mountaintop.

 Let’s just say that when it comes to my day-to-day, I’m quite predictable. Some may call me a creature of habit, but unless there’s some extraordinary event going on, like a trip to the zoo, I’m either home or at work with a smattering of grocery runs and a couple of walks sprinkled in for good measure. Just from going to the store, going for a walk, or driving into the office, I have enough stories to keep someone engrossed for many a night. We live in a strange world, and it’s getting stranger still.

Since it’s been unseasonably warm in Wisconsin the last few days, I thought I’d go for a walk the other day. The temps had reached into the forties, and that’s mighty fine weather for these parts. There are walking trails behind our house, and you can go a good way without the risk of a teenager driving her mom’s Kia, sipping her Starbucks, and texting her boyfriend all at the same time plowing into you.

You may think it improbable, but it almost happened last year, only it was an old Land Rover, and she ended up taking out a mailbox rather than yours truly. I may be a big boy, but I’m light on my feet. Bobbing and weaving that’s the key, as is being able to hear the diesel rumbling toward you and looking to see if the driver was on their side of the road.

I was not the only one who decided it was a good day for a walk. There were couples walking hand in hand, moms pushing strollers and cooing at their babies, and a good helping of people walking their pets. While most of the dogs were on a leash, there was one lady who decided a leash might be too constricting for her baby; yes, I know, I’m going to get hate for pointing out that if it has four paws and a tail, it’s not your baby, but it is what it is.

It seems her baby was the precocious sort because from behind me, I heard a squeaky bark, then the lady screaming, “release, Boomer, release, release.” I turned around to see Boomer pulling at an older man’s pant leg, him trying to pull away, and the lady continuing to screech, “release, release.”

The last thing I heard before walking out of earshot was, “I’m going to have to kick him away if he doesn’t let go of my leg.”

Boomer wasn’t a big dog. I don’t think he could have hurt the old man even if he wanted to, but that pant leg was just too tempting, and no matter how many times his mommy screamed release, he was on a mission, and that was that.

Sometimes we act a lot like Boomer. We pray, God hears, He gives us instructions, and the only thing left to do is obey, but that’s where everything goes sideways. Most often, the instruction is as simple as release, let go, unburden yourself, and lay down that thing that’s been grinding you into the dust and keeping you from moving forward. You know you should; you’ve wanted to, thought about it, planned for it, imagined what it would be like not carrying such a heavy load, but then you just shrug your shoulders and keep ambling along.

You even go so far as self-sabotage, delaying your freedom, telling yourself that tomorrow might be a better day to get out of the shackles, escape prison, and be free and not weighed down with what’s been destroying you slowly but surely.

God will open the prison doors, but you have to walk out. God will unshackle you, but you have to want to be free. If you’ve been crying out to God for a change and the change hasn’t come, perhaps He’s waiting for you to lay your burdens down, so you don’t get wheezy and lightheaded with the higher elevation.

The journey from where you are to where you want to be is always higher. It is an upward trajectory that becomes impossible if you’re weighed down with the things of this earth, the things of the past, with the regrets, mistakes, and yes, habitual sins, because let’s face it, it’s not just those of the world that are consuming the filth that is being put out endlessly.

Sanctification, transformation, regeneration, all these require less of you and more of Him. If you’re unwilling to surrender more of yourself, He cannot endue you with more of Himself, and you’re at a stalemate. Why aren’t you hearing the voice of God more clearly today than you were yesterday? Because there was no growth from one day to the other. There was no movement; there was no further self-denial or dying of self.

That’s why you haven’t grown, that’s why you haven’t matured, that’s why you haven’t expanded your faith, understanding, or obedience; because you were unwilling to release what was in your hand for what He has in His. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Fine Print

 It’s how they get you; it always has been. The fine print, the details, those thirty-seven pages of small print that explains why money isn’t free, and how you’re expected to pay more than what you received to finance that super cool jet ski even though you live in the Mojave, in a forty-year-old airstream camper, with your three-legged dog Skip.

Their job is to get you to sign on the dotted line, then profit from your inability to curb your need for instant gratification. Why do you think banks have such nice buildings? It’s not magnanimity or selflessness that made them billions and billions of dollars; it’s people’s gullibility and their reticence in reading the fine print.

It’s the old adage of people buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have, but that’s why they invented credit and credit cards. Sometimes you know offhand that an individual is prone to making bad life choices when they’re driving a six-figure car but have only one tooth. Priorities, priorities.

People have even gone to court over the details of contracts, especially when it comes to timeshares. Apparently, it’s one of those things you pass down to your kids and grandkids at infinitum, with them having to pay some sort of fee every month even though they just found a decapitated human head floating in the pool of the timeshare you belong to. A contract’s a contract, and you should have read the fine print; now pay up. Was all that really worth the free portable television back in the 90s?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been burned so many times by people eager to help me out that I’m always looking for the hidden catch, the trap door, the club behind the back that they’ll start swinging as soon as I let my guard down. Yes, it’s a harrowing way to live, but as George Bush tried saying once, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

When it comes to what God says, I’m not looking for the fine print because there isn’t any. That in itself is refreshing. It’s like a breath of fresh air after you’ve spent a day in a mine choking on dust and stale sweat. God is direct, clear, and forthright; when He speaks a thing, He means the thing He speaks. We don’t have to wonder or guess at what He said; we must simply obey and see the fulfillment of His promises.

We cannot project the same weariness toward God as we do toward people trying to sell us something. We cannot question intent or motive when He speaks, nor should we worry about some as yet unseen ulterior motive. God doesn’t play games the way men do, and He’s never asked you to pick up your phone, dial that number, and make the biggest love offering you can. It’s got to be sacrificial if you want it to work, after all.

Whenever I encounter people who insist that God failed them, my first question is whether they did what God told them to do. Were they obedient in both the great things and the small, or did they talk themselves into believing that He would be okay with half-measures? Some drawn-out explanation always precedes their answer as to why they couldn’t be in full compliance with the will of God or why their obedience was only superficial but trying to justify it doesn’t take away from the fact that there was no obedience.

If your doctor prescribes you heart medication, but you don’t take it and end up in the emergency room, it’s not your doctor’s fault. He did his part; he told you what you needed to do in order to keep from clawing at your chest and feeling as though an elephant was sitting on you. You chose not to follow through. You chose not to take your medication and must now suffer the consequences of your actions.

I have gout. My grandfather had it too. This was before the time of full panel bloodwork and other such things, and so his doctor said it was arthritis and did not discourage him from eating the things that could trigger a gout flare-up. It was a Romanian doctor, at least, he said he was a doctor. It was California in the late eighties, we were poor, and you could get a consult for twenty bucks cash.

Although he never prescribed my grandfather any meds, he said he could, but always reminded him that they were cheaper in Mexico. It’s odd the things you look back on and find terribly suspicious with the benefit of hindsight.

I got my first physical a couple of years back because my little brother kept insisting on it. Other than discovering I was one of those rare specimens whose overall health is counter to his Rubenesque physical appearance, I was informed there was a medication that would counter the uric acid buildup in my joints that were the cause of the gout attacks.

I then had a choice to make. Take the meds, or don’t. Because I’m not a fan of pain, I took the meds for a few days, but they made me feel funny and a bit off. Because I didn’t like the way they made me feel, I made the choice to stop taking them and attempt to control the gout through diet alone. It’s worked thus far, I haven’t had a flare-up in ages, but if I do, I can’t go to my doctor waving my finger in his face accusing him of being a quack. The choice was mine, as were the consequences thereof.

I cannot blame God for my failures when I would have been spared them had I been obedient to Him. I cannot place blame at His feet when it was my having chosen to ignore His guidance that brought me to this place.

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

If

 Why do we like to pretend as though certain words are not in the Bible? If we had our way, we’d likely do away with them altogether and insist they were never there, to begin with. One of the words we run headlong into time and again when it comes to the promises of God is if. That’s a dangerous word. It’s a word that demands action on our part and has negative implications whenever we do not follow through and do as God instructs.

Even when we quote scripture, we’re so reticent to let the full weight of it settle on us that we abbreviate verses to make them seem less demanding. We look at the horror show in clown makeup that society and culture have become, and the only reply we have to it is if my people who are called by My name. That’s it. That’s as far as we get into quoting the verse nowadays. What are they supposed to do, pray tell?

Whenever an if is present, it precludes certainty and presupposes conditionality of some kind. Something must follow whenever an if is present: some sort of instruction, condition, or demand.  In this case, even though God is speaking to His people, the preconditions are that they humble themselves, pray, and turn from their wicked ways. Before we can expect the world to change, God’s people must. Before we can expect those of the world to be beacons of righteousness, those in the church must turn from their wicked ways and humble themselves.

That seems like quite a broad brush. Why not get specific? Why not say if John and Jane, who are called by My name, will turn from wickedness and humble themselves? Is God just being hyperbolic? Is He so focused on one or two bad apples that He’s missing the rows upon rows of the righteous? Or is it that He knows the inner hearts of men, knows the number is smaller than we would like to believe and is urging those who are called by His name to act like it?

Whatever healing, whatever restoration, whatever forgiveness one hopes to see for the nation must begin with the church first and foremost. Read that verse slowly and let its implications resonate.

2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Until such time as those who are called by His name humble themselves, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, He will not hear them! If and then. These two words go together like a hand in a glove. If you watch what you eat and exercise, then you will drop those last few pounds. Granted, for some of us, it’s more than a few, but the point is valid nevertheless. Once you do these things, then I will hear from heaven, God says.

It used to be that if you got an education, then you could have a career and live in a fancy house with a three-car garage. I know; I’m aiming for the moon; three-car garages are nothing to scoff at. Nowadays, a three-car garage is just shy of poverty, and rather than an education and a career, all you need is a tick-tock account and no self-respect.

Although the if and then changes regarding the world, God’s if and then remain the same in perpetuity. What worked for the Hebrews of old works just as well today, but we have an aversion to everything God said we must do to be heard, except perhaps mumbling a few words once in a while and calling it prayer.

Well, you see, I’m a princely prince or a priestly priestess. I’m going to rule the nations and lord over my own universe someday, so humbling myself isn’t really in my wheelhouse. I tried it once, didn’t like it; it’s not going to work for me, so we can skip the humility part.

James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

That was before Instagram and Snapchat, though; who’s got time to wait on the Lord to lift them up? Imagine how many likes and follows you’d amass in the time it took you to humble yourself, just posting duck-face pictures of yourself instead.

America will not be restored because God’s mean-spirited or because He doesn’t want to restore it, but because it will not do what God prescribes in order to obtain healing. We’re not talking about the general population, either. We’re talking about those who are called by His name. Even they won’t do what is necessary in order to be heard by God.

Whether for an individual or a nation, the steps are the same: first, repentance, followed by forgiveness of sin, then healing and restoration. We want healing without repentance, restoration without humility, then get angry when nothing happens and things go from bad to worse.

The sad reality is that most self-professing Christians today are just playing church. They’re willing to compromise their ethics, principles, values, morals, and the Word of God just to be spared the ire of the godless. There is no foundation of truth or pursuit of righteousness because those who knew better looked the other way and allowed it to be so because life was just too good to throw a monkey wrench into it.

There was a tacit, unwritten agreement between the shepherds and the sheep wherein the shepherds would no longer call the sheep to repentance, and the sheep would reward the shepherds monetarily for looking the other way and validating their life choices. It was a win, win situation until perverts in dresses started molesting children in church sanctuaries and calling it love.

There is always a price to be paid for compromise. The modern-day church is discovering this belatedly.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Frequency

 No, God does not hear everyone. It’s not because I want to feel special or I don’t want Him to. He said so Himself, and I have to take Him at His word. In order to be heard by God, you have to be on His frequency, on His bandwidth, and that frequency is righteousness.

God hears the prayers of the righteous. Not the rich, not the influential, no the famous or the educated, the righteous. We haven’t gotten into the dead horse-beating territory, but by the time we’re done, we’ll be on the cusp because it must be so. Not only does it set the table for what it takes for God to hear men’s prayers, but it also answers the age-old question of why He doesn’t.

Because intellectual laziness is now the norm, we’ve come to conflate an answered prayer, to wish fulfillment. In our minds, the definition of an answered prayer is that God does what we ask Him to do. Anything less than that, we jot it down to God’s ears being stopped up, and we conclude that He has not answered us. That is a myopic perspective, not taking into account anything other than your limited understanding. An answered prayer doesn’t always mean God doing what you ask of Him when you ask it of Him. He reserves the right to say no, as well as say later, not yet, or not in the manner you envisioned.

If you are what He expects you to be, you don’t have to wonder whether or not He heard your prayer. If you’re not, and you know yourself not to be, there will always be that nagging question of whether or not He heard your plea. This is just one of the many benefits of righteousness and pursuing sanctification rather than a justification for our current spiritual condition.

It’s not that the wicked don’t cry out; they do. It all depends upon the situation and the level of hardship an individual happens to find themselves in. As the saying goes, there are no atheists in a foxhole, but God does not hear the wicked. They’re crying out to a God they never knew, a God they rejected and mocked, not because they are convicted or overcome with repentance, but because they’ll run to anyone or anything offering them a lifeline.

Who are you to judge the sincerity of someone’s appeal to God? I’m not judging the sincerity; I’m just drawing conclusions regarding the intent based on anecdotal evidence and previous experiences. How often have you heard, “if God gets me out of this spot or this pickle, I’ll get my life right?” How many managed to get through their hardship only to forget the promise they made?

The righteous have exclusive privileges not extended to the godless; one of those privileges is that God will hear them. And here we get into another sticky wicket because it’s not whether or not you see yourself as righteous, but if God sees you as righteous. What do you mean? I identify as righteous, therefore, I am. Sorry, God doesn’t play those kinds of games. He knows the difference between delusion and reality, unlike this generation, and you can declare your righteousness until you’re blue in the face; if all you’re doing is declaring, He will not hear you.

1 Peter 1:13-16, “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

There are action steps we must take in order to walk in righteousness, from girding up the loins of our minds to being sober to not conforming ourselves to the former lusts. That’s what obedient children do. It’s not an issue of legalism, it’s an issue of obedience, but since much of today’s church is living in open rebellion to the Word of God, we’d rather call it what it’s not in order to validate ourselves to ourselves.

We think that if we can get enough delusional people together, we can force God to change His mind and rescind His word. If everyone says it’s not a sin, then it must not be. But God still says it’s a sin. He never put it up for a vote, and this is not a democracy.

Some people are so well established in their self-delusion that the only time they realize they’ve been doing their own thing and God had no part in it is when they cry out to Him, and He does not answer. Since such souls only cry out when they are in desperate need, at their most vulnerable, at their most susceptible, they will cry out, and no answer will be forthcoming.

We can’t reject God’s commands and expect His blessing. We can’t reject God’s Word and expect Him to be a present help in times of trouble. I am not concerned about tomorrow because I live for Him today. I am not worried about the future because He is my present.

Because I am His, I know that He can and will hear me when I call and answer in my hour of need. I don’t have to wonder or guess whether or not I am being heard when I pray. I know He hears me.

2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Heard

 It’s one thing to speak, another to listen, and another still to be heard. Not all who speak are heard, and not all who listen hear. Sometimes, and this happens more often than we want to acknowledge, you can speak, and the individual listens, but what they hear is what they want to hear. If you have children, you know what I’m talking about. They ask if they can have candy, and you say no, but what they hear is don’t eat the whole bag. Leave a couple on the bottom so that you have something to put back in the cupboard. That way, mom won’t see the empty bag in the trash and start an investigation into the matter.

When you call them on it, they’re so sincere in their obfuscation that you have to take a second and remind yourself what you said. You’d think you were raising politicians and not two little girls.

When we speak to God, He hears, and He doesn’t pretend He heard something other than what we said. That is a comfort and a strength because if He hears, then we know He will act on our behalf in due course.

One of the most challenging things we must contend with as believers is accepting that God does not think as we do. He is not limited to a handful of decades or a handful of centuries. He is from the beginning and will be forevermore, so His perspective will naturally differ from yours or mine.

As an adult pushing fifty, I have a different perspective than my five-year-old about pretty much everything, except for how fun it is to jump up and down on the bed. That we agree on.

We cannot expect the eternal God to see things the way we do. Because He is eternal, we can, however, defer to Him and do as He commands, knowing that by doing so, His name will be glorified through us.

God hears you! What an awe-inspiring reality. If you’ve ever had feelings of unimportance, if ever you thought you didn’t matter, that you were invisible, just going through life on your way to the grave, just remember that the creator of all that is seen and unseen hears you. Not only does He hear, but He also promises to help, to comfort, to strengthen, to restore, and to mend.

A relationship is reciprocal. When we speak, He hears, but when He speaks, we should hear as well. What we should hear is what He said, not what we would like to hear, because He knows what He said, so try as one might, they can’t get one past Him. If our expectations extend only insofar as Him hearing us, then it’s not really a relationship; it’s the Christian version of having a genie we make wishes to.

If someone insists that they love you, but the only time you hear from them and the only time they seek you out is when they have a problem that needs fixing, eventually you will start to wonder if the love is there or it’s just a ruse to get something from you.

You can fake sincerity but only for a time. That’s why so many spiritual mentors nowadays are nothing more than flashes in the pan because if what they are doing doesn’t come from pure intentions and a sincere heart, eventually, that feeling that something’s not quite right begins to make itself known to the point that you can no longer ignore it.

It’s not as though it takes God a long time to figure out if the desire of someone’s heart is Him or something they can get from Him. He knows the end from the beginning, He sees the inner parts of men’s hearts, and the idea that we can deceive or trick Him in any way, shape, or form is ludicrous, but men still try. Perhaps they can pretend to love Him long enough to get a prayer or two answered. Maybe they can pay Him enough lip service to have Him act on their behalf before the illusion crumbles.

That is what God has been reduced to in our modern era, and it’s disheartening and troublesome. If you don’t have time for God on your good days if you don’t spend time with Him when you want nothing from Him, how can you claim there is reciprocity there?

What we have been sold by modern Pharisees is not a reciprocal relationship with God but a situational one. Give me stuff, and I’ll acknowledge you. Straighten my teeth, clear my acne, and let the love of my life knock on my door with a free pineapple pizza. That’s just for starters. The list is long, but I wouldn’t want to overwhelm you, Lord. I’ll revisit the conversation once these things are done and will have another batch of wishes for you. That’s a bit different from though He slay me, yet I will trust Him, but maybe something got lost in translation.

Serving God with an ulterior motive in mind is not serving Him at all. It’s pretending to serve Him until you get what you were after. Then, the pretense can drop, and you can go back to what you truly love, either sin or yourself. That’s not very loving, brother Mike. It’s the truth, though, isn’t it?

We’ve been overly concerned with feelings to the point of sacrificing the truth in this generation, and we see where that’s gotten us. Up is down, black is white, sin is a virtue, and godliness is legalism. All this confusion brought to you by feelings! God hears, but He hears the prayers of the righteous. Don’t believe me? I have proof:

Proverbs 15:29, “The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayers of the righteous.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.